Safe
by darkestboy
Summary: The Doctor and Martha adapt to their new surrounding as they go into hiding. Set before and during Human Nature/The Family Of Blood.


**Name:** Safe  
**Characters:** 10th Doctor/John Smith, Martha Jones, Joan Redfern, Family Of Blood  
**Synopsis: **The Doctor decides to become human for his own protection and to save the lives of others, Martha deals with being stuck in a time and place where she's at a disadvantage, John Smith has the strangest of dreams while becoming more attracted to Joan Redfern and the Family are frantic to find their only hope of survival in tracking down the elusive Time Lord. Set before and during _Human Nature/The Family Of Blood_.

Getting off a dangerous ship had been one thing that both the Doctor and Martha couldn't have agreed more on doing fast enough. Looking at the key in her hands, Martha realised he was finally letting her in. This was good, a start at least. No more of an afterthought.

"It's good, isn't it?" the Doctor said, a goofy, toothy smile tracing across his lips. "Not many people get to have a key for the TARDIS."

"I'm not the first though, am I?" Martha asked, a resigned look on her face, realising that this wasn't a unique experience. "I mean, Rose. She had one too. Am I right?"

"Yeah," the Doctor admitted. "But I don't hand those out to just anyone, Martha. Only people I care about and trust."

"I'm honoured," Martha smiled. Even now, the mention of that name was a sore point for the both of them. Eager to change the subject, Martha looked at the monitors. "Have we landed somewhere?"

"What?" the Doctor asked. He hadn't been paying attention to her. Martha noticed that from time to time the Doctor tended to phase out a little.

"The monitor, it's blinking," Martha pointed. A flash of blue light was indeed present on the screen. The Doctor flicked his glasses on and looked for himself.

"That can't be right," the Doctor looked again. "I didn't even set any co-ordinates. We should still be in the vortex."

"You did say this thing had a mind of its own," Martha told him. "Maybe it's a distress call."

"Maybe," the Doctor murmured. Either way, they had landed somewhere. The only way to find out what was going on was to open the doors and after the whole debacle on SS Pentallian, he wasn't in the mood for any more nasty surprises.

Looking at each other with a certain level of trepidation, the Doctor and Martha found themselves tensing a little upon reaching for the door.

"I'm sure whatever it is," Martha said assuring her friend, "it can't be that bad. I mean, we've both seen worse and what exactly can topic the Daleks?"

"Quite right," the Doctor smiled. "Allonsy."

No sooner had he said that word, he immediately regretted it. It was much worse than he expected.

"Time Lord. Seize him!" a voice growled. An ancient voice, one the Doctor had recognised before and one he was certainly not expecting ever to see again.

Slamming the doors shut of the TARDIS, both the Doctor and Martha found themselves lucky to narrowly miss the laser beams that had been directly aimed for them. Now couldn't have been a worse time for the Family to show up.

Martha had looked at him with confusion. She knew well by the Doctor's twitchy reactions, he knew exactly what they were up against. Martha also was beginning to realise that he also wouldn't run away from a fight unless the chances of winning were slim and even then, he would flee with reservation.

The Doctor racked his mind, wondering how he was going to get out of this pickle. The Family were relentless. They'd track him down to the very ends of the universe and destroy worlds just to get what they wanted — his lifecycle. With it, they'd be unstoppable and the world — several worlds would suffer as a direct result. The Doctor couldn't allow that to happen.

"Martha, you trust me, don't you?" the Doctor asked her, desperation in his words. He hated himself for what he was going to have to ask her.

"Of course I do," Martha told him, worry tinting her voice. Whatever the Doctor was planning, Martha had a strong feeling that she wasn't going to benefit from it at all. The look in his eyes, she could tell that he was going to do something risky.

"Because it all depends on you."

The Doctor had then explained to her that he needed to become human, hide in a place for at least three months and wait for the Family to die out. He could only use the chameleon arc to rewrite his own biology and fit into whatever setting he would be thrown into hiding. Martha unfortunately would have the unenviable task of having to improvise.

Aiding her with a list of instructions as well as a video message thanking her, the Doctor then underwent the change. From the corner of his eye, he could see Martha's horrified reaction of concern for his well being as his writhed in agony, having his entire DNA structure rewritten. He had never been anything other than a Time Lord. Being human was going to be quite the adjustment.

"Keep me safe."

Searching through the furthest of galaxies, the Family were finding themselves becoming more and more restless. They had tracked the Doctor's TARDIS and had him in their sight. Being incorporeal put them at a distinct disadvantage. If they weren't, they simply could've grabbed him and taken his life cycle, there and then.

"The scent is scattered. It's like he's ceased to exist."

"Impossible," another voice, Mother Of Mine had called out, affronted. "He's a Time Lord. He has the whole of time and space to hide and he can hide all he wants but he's only putting off the inevitable."

"You have to admire his cunning, though," the first voice replied, Son Of Mine. "It is a strong impulse with his kind."

"He's the last of his kind," Daughter Of Mine said. "That should make acquiring him even more important. His death will usher the end of his race but better than that …"

"It ushers the survival of ours," Father Of Mine cackled, "yes, his death will give us eternal life. The Time Lord will die and I think I have an idea as to where these faint traces are coming from."

With that, the Family set the co-ordinates on their ship. From what they had read about the Doctor, he was one of the few Time Lords who had a fondness for the planet known as Earth. If he was going to choose anywhere to hide, it would definitely be there.

"We're coming for you, Doctor. Doesn't matter where you are, we will find you."

"Keep me safe."

Martha had stared at the fob watch with a steely concentration. If anyone had spotted her doing so, they would've thought she was a bit mad. She hated this plan. Logically it made sense. The Doctor couldn't physically destroy the Family so waiting for them to die was the best plan they had. Too bad it wasn't very proactive and that it left them stuck in this time period.

The Doctor fared well as John Smith, a respected English teacher. Unfortunately in 1913, there weren't many female doctors around so she had the displeasure of being Smith's servant. It made sense though, keeping her close to Mr Smith but sometimes it made her sad that she couldn't talk to him in the same way she could to the Doctor.

The closest person Martha had to a confidant was Jenny, who was nice but it wasn't the same. Jenny already thought she was odd so if Martha told her about aliens and the like, she'd hate to imagine how her only friend in this time period would think of her.

"Martha, have you seen my glasses?" John Smith asked. His presence had taken her by surprise.

"They're by your bedside, Mr Smith," Martha said, without looking at him. She hated to admit that there was the tiniest part of her tempted to open up the watch. She fought the temptation. Unless she didn't have a choice, the watch was to remain unopened.

"Thank you," John Smith said, smiling at her. "I think I'd be lost without you."

"You have no idea," Martha said, under her breath.

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing, sir," Martha turned around. She could see that he had a preoccupied look on his face. Like there was a part of the Doctor trying to get out.

It was enough to make Martha feel more like a jailer than a guardian, except the Doctor wasn't her prisoner. He chose this because he knew it was the only way to keep everyone safe. To keep himself safe. Martha understood that.

"Is that new, sir?" Martha pointed at the journal in an effort to change the subject.

"Um, yeah," John Smith replied, with a look on his face like a naughty child caught stealing biscuits before dinner. "It's nothing really. Just drabbles. I drabble. Don't you?"

"Can't say I do."

"Well." John inhaled and exhaled a breath. "I should leave. Lots of academic young minds to mould. The future's in a classroom and they're not going to learn anything from an absentee man, are they?"

"No, sir," Martha agreed.

He watched her for a second and then turned to leave, not noticing that he left his journal on the bed. Martha wasn't the sort of girl to go peering through other people's private thoughts but there was something in his voice that slightly alarmed her.

Leafing through the diary, Martha realised there was some good reason to have some reservations. There had been various drawings of Daleks, Cybermen, Slitheen, of the Doctor himself, seemingly more than one version. Martha remembered on the Pentallian that he had briefly tried to explain something about his body changing.

"I'm sorry, Miss Jones, but shouldn't you be elsewhere?"

Martha had recognised the voice. It belonged to a Joan Redfern, a nice if somewhat prudent woman. Martha had cottoned on in the last few days that Joan had developed feelings for Mr Smith/the Doctor. This also worried her.

"Just leaving, ma'am," Martha meekly smiled at the woman as she headed out of the room with Joan behind her.

Joan had studied Martha with a degree of fascination. The girl had struck her as someone odd. She knew that Martha had arrived with Mr Smith two months ago but Martha also seemed a bit too familiar with the man as well. Perhaps the girl had an infantile crush on Mr Smith. Joan wondered if she should have a word with Martha to remind her of her place but she felt that it might have been better if Mr Smith did that instead.

"Say it again, you filthy little oink and I'll have your guts for garters," Hutchinson spat as he punched another student for challenging him.

"Hutchinson," John Smith called him, commandingly. "Only a coward behaves the way you do. Next time I see that, I'll have you helping out cook during the evening, do you understand?"

Hutchinson blinked, and then became irritated upon the smiles on Latimer and Baines's faces as he was being reprimanded but he grudgingly gave into the new teacher. "Yes sir."

"Good lad," Smith said before taking his leave. "Back to class."

Smith walked around the corridor. He had been here for two months and had found himself falling in love with the place. Some of the staff did seem a little rigid in their thinking and attitudes towards students and lesser staff alike but Smith thought he was more progressive. He also felt something here. Safe.

"Keep me safe," Smith murmured to himself. It had been something he had been hearing in his mind quite a lot, though he was unsure of as to why.

"Safe from what?" Joan Redfern had asked.

"Miss Redfern, I didn't see you there." Smith smiled, slightly embarrassed. "How are things?"

"Things are good." Joan smiled at him. "Would you care to join the others and I in the staff room for some tea?"

"You know, I'd be delighted to," Smith smiled at her. "Can't go wrong with a good old cuppa. Molte Bene."

As they headed into the teacher's lounge, Smith thought again about being safe. He felt safe here. There was no reason not to. Little did he know that within in the week, he would be anything but safe upon the arrival of the Family. They needed a Time Lord to survive and now they had him within their sights. He wasn't going to get away from them a second time.

- The End -


End file.
